Does my sister has an Artritis? She's 7.

Bones, joints and muscles
1

Hello from Varna, Bulgaria!

I know it's difficult to diagnose anything online, almost impossible really, but I will be happy about any feedback at all from any of you, since I don't trust the medical "professionals" from my country anymore.

To make a long story short, my sister's left foot is rolled inwards, it's inverted. The inversion is so bad she can't even walk. Literally she can't walk. She needs someone to support her everywhere by hand, and she doesn't go outside our home, almost never. My mother spent hundreds, even thousands for doctors, medicine, check-ups, blood tests, etc.

They're pumping my sister constantly with cortisols, various antibiotics, injections and other heavy meds because a couple of "experts" say so. The "experts" from Bulgaria officially stated "she has an Arthritis" which "cannot be cured".

She can barely go to the restroom and can't take a shower. She just became 7, but my mother don't want to let her go to school this year. My mother believes she has an Arthritis, I don't. We don't have Arthritis in the family.

From not being able to properly walk and from sitting all day, my sister became a blob. She's currently around 60 kgs of weight which makes her around 130+ lbs. She's 7! She sits all day, doesn't move at all, on her couch, and eats. Watches TV, plays on a Tablet, and that's her daily routine, in general. She have become so fat that her fingers are touching each other and she can't hold a spoon anymore. 

She's breathing only indoor air and they open up the windows in her room only once a day for 10 minutes, which I believe it's pretty damaging for any human!

Not going to school and not having normal friends (since she doesn't go outside) is slowly but surely turning her into an anti-social creep. That's the reality. 

And to top all that, yesterday she broke her toe, because she slipped. I decided to dig around, googled "bent foot" and I found photos of exactly how her foot looks like! The condition these photos are connected to is said to be "an ankle sprain". 

And also: ankle sprain / lateral ankle sprain / inversion ankle sprain.

She walks on the outside part of her foot exactly like in the photos attached below. Her foot looks 100% exactly like that on the photos.

I can't convince my mother that she's just procrastinating the inevitable. If that's a sprained ankle or a ligament problem, a surgery resolves that, right?

How do you think?

Thanks in advance!

2

Omggg!! I'm soooo sorry to hear of your sister's plyte. How awful for all of you! You didn't mention. Was your sister born like this? If that's the case, it would seem to be a birth defect which could possibly be surgically corrected. If it came later in life, it still doesn't sound like arthritis to me, more of a muscular problem. I'm not a physician but I definitely think this needs further attention before all your lives are ruined! Please take care.

3

Thank you so much!

I believe not. Not born with it I meant. She was walking normally from what I remember. And the last 2.5 years I was abroad, so I didn't know what happened. My grandfather keeps trolling my mom, saying my sister fell on the ground 2 years ago and this happened, which even further pushes me towards believing that's actually not Artritis. But since I'm not a MD, I can't really prove anything, but just speculate.

4

No-one here can help your question - and none of us has arthritis as our main complaint. Your sister definitely doesn't have what we have - it is a disorder that only much older people develop.

A sprained ankle doesn't need surgery - but your sister does appear to need some medical intervention of some sort - not least because being so overweight at that age is putting her life at risk. Exercise isn't essential to maintain a lower weight - but in that case she needs to be fed less high calorie food. Your mother seems to be not exercising her role as a parent - so my question has to be as to whether it is your mother who has the worse medical problem?

5

A single mother and nobody to oppose her legally, she thinks that she knows everything. I'm strictly against she giving my sister too many sweets, but lately the only snack my sister is getting is Cappy juice, chocolate, M&Ms, Nutella and Mondelez Barny milk flavoured chocolate sponge bears. That's her daily calorie intake really. She knows not the taste of fruits and vegetables, which my sister considers "bitter" and notably – "unduly heinous".

I'm trying to talk but nobody listens.

And about the condition, I mean ... my grandma has mild Arthritis on her fingers from washing dishes with cold water too much. But she's 72.

My mother thinks she helps. She thinks giving everything to a child especially a whole bunch of sweets – is making her an angel.

My main goal as of now is to make her understand swelling-decreasing injections for the leg won't help. Too much weight is bending the leg further. And the drugs are making the kid have constant diarrhea and drowsiness. And I think they're giving her the wrong medication. 

My main concern as of now is cortisone shots on a possibly healthy organism and no actual rheumatoid arthritis condition.

Thanks for your post btw.

6

Yes - a common scenario I suspect. Guilt????

I wish you luck in finding help. Does your country have social services? They would be able to help in the UK I think - but I don't know for sure.

7

She could have juvenile arthritis, but it seems there are more problems than that including her weight and feet. She really needs to see a professional to sort things out for her. Leaving things like her feet may cause permanent damage.

8

4-5 X-Rays and at least two MRI scans were made. Everyone keeps saying "Arthritis". For just year and a half, her foot bent at 45° degrees. From 90° to 45° degrees.

9

Has anyone suggested anything she can do about it or are they just taking scans and saying arthritis? How does your sister feel?

10

They said swimming will help. Actually more like "swimming could help", with a "could", not "will". She never tried swimming though. My mother said swimming was "too dangerous".

She's holding up surprisingly well. She jokes a lot. Self irony and all. Considering her condition, I sometimes wonder. Maybe she's just getting used to it, kind of accepted her fate. Or she believes she'll be fine. I can only wonder. Thanks for asking!

11

Maybe guilt but probably ignorance.

Social services... Nah. No such animal here. Only for the Roma minorities, the usual picture.

12

Swimming sounds like a good idea. Could she go to classes? It does sound that your mother may be over protecting her.

13

She can walk, but she have to do it very slowly, and it hurts if she's standing straight for a long period of time. My mother says she can't let her go to school (1st grade this year should've been) because other kids will "push her off the stairs and she will break her bones". And also "other kids will bully her for being very intelligent". It's all just excuses I believe.

14

How sad for your sister. It would be great if she could mix with other children. I am not sure I would know what to do about the situation. All I can do it is hope that you can find some way of sorting things out for her.

15

The latest generation of kids are kind of bullies to be honest. I don't know. If it is really Arthritis, can this be corrected via surgery? Thanks.

16

It really varies from person to person and how bad it is. I would have thought if she has a deformed foot she could have surgery, but I may be totally wrong. A surgeon would have to look at it.